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Social Differentiation and Construction of Elites in Belgrade Studio Photography portraits, ideas of beauty and representation of both photographer and clients meet and they do not necessarily coincide. Particularly until the turn of the twentieth century and the stabilization of the local photographic market in Belgrade and Serbia, the photographer’s gaze was rather trained to aesthetics developed in western European art. That is because most of the cultural and art workers of that period received their formal education at art schools and universities in Vienna, Munich, Paris, or St. Petersburg (see Trgovéevié 2003: 60). Analyzing Milan Jovanovids photographic opus, we should ask what discourses have shaped his view of the photographed subjects. He was born into a family of artists and photographers. His father ran a photographic studio in Vrsac, which at that time was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where Jovanovi¢ and his brothers learned how to run the business. Milan Jovanoviés older brother Paja Jovanovié became one of Serbia’s most famous realist painters. Particularly his historical compositions were believed to capture a collective memory of Serbian society and the nation. Milan Jovanovi¢’s educational history is not elaborated well. However, it has been recorded that he had followed his older brothers, who had both studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and later worked in Vienna, Munich, and Paris.’ After a series of sojourns to those cities, Milan Jovanovié moved to Belgrade in 1887 and opened up a photographic studio with the help of his family (see Malic 1997). He was professionally active until the outbreak of World War I. In 1893 he was appointed court photographer of the king of Serbia and three years later also court photographer of the prince of Montenegro. Milan Jovanovi¢’s clientele was the rising Serbian bourgeoisie. It was they who formed the political and economical center of power and who were bringing forward new ideas of a modern nation-state and society (Stankovié 2003: 69ff; see also Mali¢ 1997; Milojkovi¢-Djurié 2007). Historical Background At the turn of the twentieth century, Serbia was a relatively young state striving for international recognition and establishment as a sovereign and independent nation. Being less developed than many other parts of Europe in many respects (weak economy, an inefficient bureaucracy and absence of other functioning institutions, an increasing urban-rural divide), it attracted some foreign capital* and know-how that, for example, materialized in the construction of a rail network connecting Belgrade and southern Serbia (Ni8) in 1884 and in the beginnings of industrializa 3 At the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Paja Jovanovié was a student of Christian Griepenkerl, whose specialties were allegorical representations of classical mythology and portraits and also of Leopold Carl Miiller, who was regarded as Austria’s most influential painter of the “Orient.” Jovanovié spent a large amount of his working career in Austria and in Munich (see Subotié 2006). Svetislav Jovanovic joined the Academy Julian in Paris, a private studio school for art students, after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (see Brankovo Kolo 1900: 94-95). 4 According to Calic, half of the total investments into Serbian fabrics were by foreign capital by the outbreak of World War I (1994: 175). 143
